


The Latest Numbers

by Glishara



Category: Political RPF - US 21st c.
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-27
Updated: 2015-08-27
Packaged: 2018-04-17 13:07:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4667684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glishara/pseuds/Glishara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Donald Trump's campaign manager has a tough job.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Latest Numbers

The new poll numbers were in, and they were bad news.

Corey spent a solid two hours poring over them, looking for hopeful signs. "How is this even possible?" he muttered, rubbing the back of his head. The headache was getting worse every day now. "Eventually, they have to find a ceiling, right?"

The jubilance in the campaign office had been hard to face. When Hope got the call from OANN asking for a comment -- forty percent, good God -- her smile told the story well before she'd had to pass it on.

Corey was starting to think he was screwed on this one.

Driven by some morbid masochism, he clicked over to CNN and typed "Trump" into the search bar. The issue with Ramos was still dominating, which was good. Dylan Ratigan was calling Trump a bad manager. The latest Megyn Kelly incident wasn't getting nearly enough coverage.

Shit. He was running out of stupid crap to pull, and the poll numbers were still going up.

He had been waiting for the phone call ever since the numbers hit the internet. Now it finally rang, and Corey had to steel himself to answer.

Trump didn't waste time. Or words. "What the hell do you think we're doing here, Corey?"

"Sorry, sir. I--"

"Shut up. I don't want to hear you talk. You told me, kick out the Mexican reporter. You said that would be bad."

"I thought it would --"

"Shut up. I can't drop out when I'm winning. You know I can't drop out when I'm winning. What do I have to do here?"

"Marry a man?" Corey picked up a pen and turned it idly over in his fingers, contemplating maybe stabbing it in someone's eye. His own, maybe. Or the next person he saw with a Trump 16 bumper sticker.

"Shut up. Someone just shot some reporters. What do I say here?"

"If you came out as pro-shooting reporters, that might turn some people off. You could mention Megyn Kelly again."

"They were CBS reporters, Corey."

Corey closed his eyes and exhaled on a 3-count. "Point. Okay, maybe... there's nothing you can say on the gun control issue that someone else in the field hasn't already said a more extreme version of. We need another angle."

"Terrorism!"

"Good thinking, sir, but I was thinking mental health."

"Does Colbert have these problems?"

"I think Colbert is more open about being a fictitious persona, sir."

"You're fired."

"Yes, sir. Thank you."

"Shut up. Mental health. Talk to me."

"Yes, sir. The shooting wasn't a gun issue. It was a mental health issue. Say that the real issue here is that we aren't locking crazy people up the way we used to. Call for a return to involuntary commitments for mental health problems."

"That's a little sick, Corey."

"Yes, sir. Do you want your numbers down, or not?"

#

A few hours later, it was all over the news: "In the old days they had mental institutions for people like this because he was really, definitely borderline and definitely would have been and should have been institutionalized."

#

The new poll numbers were in, and they were bad news.

"Sir, I'm very sorry to say this, but I think you're going to be president."


End file.
